


A Life Well Lived

by lielabell



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-29
Updated: 2011-12-29
Packaged: 2017-10-28 10:51:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/307098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lielabell/pseuds/lielabell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You would have been a great newsie," he says, happy in the knowledge that none of his decedents will ever have to suffer through that kind of a life. "Move at least a thousand papes a week."</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Life Well Lived

_Where there's life there's got to be hope –The Stone Roses_

Les settles himself into the arm chair and smiles at the children sitting around him, their eyes wide with excitement.

"Tell us a story," they plead.

"A story?" he says, rubbing his chin and pretending to stare off into the distance. "I don't know about that. It's almost time to be cutting the pie and I'm sure that none of you want to miss that. Not for a story from an old fella like me."

"But we do!" they protest, the youngest one nodding her head so violently that he thinks it just might fall off.

"If you're sure," he says, letting his voice trail off as he scopes up the little girl into his lap and tweakes her nose. She giggles, and then burrows her cheek into his chest. He drops a kiss onto her head and then grins at the other children, who jostle each other, trying to get a better seat. "Well, now, what sort of story do you want to hear?"

"A true story," says Frank, he's nearly twelve now and only interested in facts and figures. A lot like his father at that age.

"A romantic story," Julie begs, ignoring the boos and protestations of the boys.

"An adventure story, like Davey Crockett," Danny says, his eyes gleaming beneath his coon skin cap.

Les scratches at his ear and thinks about the many things he could tell them. His days standing around the docks hoping to be picked to work that day during the Great Depression, that would fulfill Frank's request, but was a bit too depressing for a happy family holiday. Or maybe the story of how he first meet his Sally, the woman he had happily spent his life with. But Sally was gone now and even though she had passed on nearly five years ago he still wasn't comfortable talking about her. It just made him remember and all he wanted to do now was forget.

Adventures. He's had more then his share. Going to war did that for a man. Still, none of those stories were the sort that he felt like telling to the group of fresh faced children in front of him. Let them live without knowing the horrors man can inflict upon his own kind for as long as possible, he thinks to himself as he smiles.

He had seen so many things in his life. Things he never could have imagined as a child. Subways, cars, radios, television. Things his own children don't even see as the wonders they are. Things this new generation would no doubt be unable to live without. He'd seen women in dresses that reached their ankles and corsets laced so tight that his hands could circle around their waists. And only a few years after that they had on silk stocking and hemlines well above the knee. He'd seen times filled with feast and year upon year of famine. His life had encompassed so much, but for all he had seen and done there was still one moment that stood clear above all the rest in his mind.

He smiles down at the children, eyes glinting, and says, "When I was no older then you are now, Edward, I saw something that made me believe that I could do anything."

Edward gives him a wide smile in return, showing the gaps where his two front teeth ought to be. "When you took on the World!" he says, proud to know where the story was going.

"With Great Uncle Jack," Frank put in.

"And Great Uncle David," Danny added.

"Yes, with them," Les answers hesitantly. He worries about the pair of them what with the way things were going these days. The world was a much less forgiving place then it once had been. Things no one seemed to mind in the twenties could get a man all but tarred and feathered in the fifties. But then, they were both so old now. Surely no one would pry into the affairs of a pair of octogenarians. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and says, "And your Great Aunt Sarah, as well," winking at his granddaughters.

They giggle and Penny says, "There were girl newsies, too," with a smirk for the male members of the family.

Danny rolls his eyes, "Girls."

"We wouldn't have won without them," Les chids.

"I wish I was a newsie!" Danny says, bouncing in his spot, completely ignoring his grandfather's admonition. "It would have been so much fun."

Les shook his head at that. It had been fun, in its way. Walking the streets, selling papers and getting into as much trouble as he possibly could. But it wasn't the life he wanted for own children, let alone his grandchildren. It had been a hard life, one filled with dirt and poverty. It took as easily as it gave and more then one child had ended his life without anyone to notice or morn.

"You would have been a great newsie," he says, happy in the knowledge that none of his decedents will ever have to suffer through that kind of a life. "Move at least a thousand papes a week."

"I don't want to be a newsie," Julia sniffs. "I want to be the First Lady."

Les tries to hide his smile and says, "You can be anything you want to be, my dear. But if that is the case then you had better marry a very ambitious man."

"Children, it's time for desert," Bess calls out, walking into the room. She gives her father a kiss on the cheek and rests her hand on his shoulder. "I should have known you would be in here. No doubt filling their heads full of tails about your glory days."

He pats her hand. "Let an old man have his moment in the sun, child."

She clicks her tongue. "Child, honestly. I'm nearly thirty, father."

"And look exactly the same as you did at sixteen."

She rolls her eyes. "Alright, children, you heard me. Into the dinning room with you."

They left in a cacophony and Les watches them with a fond smile. It was a fine legacy to leave. Three sons, two daughters and their assorted offspring. He was content. His was a life well lived. So good that even the hardest parts of it could be turned into happy fantasies and given as a gift to the sweet innocence of pampered youth.


End file.
